Food

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As Easy as Apple Pie

20131221_162652My husband, Pete, loves apples. His formative years spent in the apple country of upstate New York left a lasting mark on him. He eats at least an apple a day, preferably a crisp, tart McIntosh. Even better, he loves apples baked into a pie. I’m not talking about a mere platonic relationship here. This is true love. He really enjoys a towering slice of deep-dish apple pie.

On the other hand, I am allergic to apples. Eating even one bite causes me severe digestive distress, to put it politely. So of course we up and married each other.

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The Morning After: Eating Healthy

Here we are, the day after Thanksgiving. Did you eat too much? Are you still feeling full? I, like many others, often throw out restraint on our national feast day, but the day after is another story. As I munch on leftover stuffing and sweet potatoes, my conscience is beginning to intrude on my carb-induced lethargy. It’s time to climb back onto the healthy food wagon before my cravings take over my life.

At the same time, Pete and I recently restructured our budget. I’m excited that we can finally plan our spending—he hasn’t missed a paycheck for an entire year now! Still, we’re not exactly flush (I’m looking for flexible employment), and our food budget is one area where we can conserve. The average person in the U.S. spends $7 per day on food. That works out to $420 per month to feed two people. We set our budget at only $300. (This is what we already spend, so we know we can do it.)

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Some Sweet Advice

I know. This isn’t really a food blog. But I’m so frustrated with some of the misinformation out in web-land, I’m going to rant about food today. Specifically, I’m targeting sugar.

Friends recently posted a couple of recipes on Facebook, claiming they were very healthy:

Banana Bread with honey and applesauce instead of sugar & oil….Delicious & Healthy….

When you have a sweet tooth and want to stay on track, here’s a nice treat. Sugar is NOT an added ingredient. (The recipe for oatmeal cookies includes three ripe mashed bananas and ½ cup raisins.)

Wondering if either recipe fits my low-glycemic (that means food that won’t spike my blood sugar levels) diet, I did some calculations. Are they really healthy? Is either recipe actually low in sugar?

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Cold Roast Beef Salad

Roast beef salad_LAH_7894It’s been a while since I’ve posted a recipe, and this one is perfect for the coming summer months (now that the weather has finally warmed up). You don’t have to heat up the kitchen. We frequently enjoy salad for dinner, and I have a good assortment of recipes to choose from. This is a roast beef and lettuce dish that is hearty enough to satisfy even those who think main dish salads are only for wimps. I simply buy thinly sliced roast beef at the deli. It’s pricey, but you don’t need much. This recipe serves two hungry people or three women watching their weight.

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Reverse-engineered Phở

Pho_Everett-WA_LAH_13One of the delightful things about visiting the west coast is the opportunity to eat at a large variety of ethnic restaurants. Of course we have international restaurants here in Colorado, but they’re small change compared to the abundance I’ve enjoyed in California or Washington. Just for example, within just a couple of miles of our old house in Cupertino there are now seven Chinese places specializing in dim sum. That’s more than exist in the entire state of Colorado. (I highly recommend the dim sum at New Port in Sunnyvale.)

The problem with visiting other places is that I develop a passion for certain foods, then discover that they aren’t readily available at home. When we first moved to Colorado Springs, twenty years ago, the only Indian restaurant was run by two Brits, and the food was pretty awful. The only solution was to learn to make our favorite dishes myself.

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What’s for Dinner?

How many of us are starting the new year on a diet? Whether you’re counting carbs, calories, and servings, or just trying to “eat a more healthy diet,” odds are that at least one of your new year’s resolutions involves food. Or maybe you hope to be more organized this year. I’m aiming for both–better eating and a saner schedule—so I’ve been going over our calendar, trying to plan out some healthy, easy to make, and inexpensive meals for the coming weeks. Even if we don’t follow my plan (and I’m quite sure we won’t), having some meal ideas thought out can salvage dinner on those days when it seems I don’t even have time to breathe, much less cook.

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It’s Still Junk Food

I was looking through an old cookbook, circa 1955, snickering at all the recipes for Jello “salads” and casseroles laced with cream of mushroom soup (with crushed saltines on top). It was a cuisine based on white bread, white potatoes, and white rice. I grew up on this sort of diet. My mom was the consummate consumer, enthusiastically trying every new mix that Betty Crocker could come up with.

Of course, these days we are much more nutritionally savvy. We eat whole wheat bread, sweet potatoes, and brown rice. Our fruits and veggies are organic. We shun junk food. Our consciences are clear. Right? Then explain this:

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Dialog? or Diatribe?

You think politics and religion get people fired up? I’ve discovered something even more apt to generate extreme views and robust “discussion,” and it has nothing to do with the economy or same-sex marriage. Yup, I’m talking about food.

It seems that everyone has decided they’re an expert. They do or do not eat [fill in soy, bacon, sugar, etc., etc.], and they’re convinced that you should, or should not, eat it as well.

I was chatting with a group of women a few days ago, and someone asked if anyone had a good cold veggie salad recipe. I offered that I make a broccoli salad that is pretty popular at pot-lucks, and started to list off the ingredients. Since we’re all on diets of one form or another, I mentioned that I often substitute turkey bacon for higher-fat “real” bacon—and a lady I did not know, sitting across the table, started screaming at me!

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To Everything There is a Season

The green, slimy mass lurched at me from the bottom of the crisper drawer. I fended it off with a dish rag while rescuing the still-edible produce piled on top. Rats. Those green beans (or was it the chard?) looked so great when I bought them—I hated for them to go to waste.

Have you ever noticed that sometimes produce seems to spoil right away, while other times it seems to last a few days in the fridge? To some extent, it’s the nature of that particular vegetable. Some kinds just last longer than others. But that’s not the whole story. I find that produce purchased out of season just doesn’t keep as long, probably because it had so far to go to get here in the first place.

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Salmon

It’s summertime, too hot to cook, and friends are joining us for dinner. Time to ask Pete to pick up a salmon filet on his way home from work. Throw it on the BBQ, add a couple of salads, and fresh fruit for dessert, and we’ve got one of our favorite meals (see the recipe at the end of this post).

Barbecued salmon is so delicious, even our “I don’t like fish” friends snarf it down. Along with happy taste buds, we feel good knowing that salmon is good for you. Yes, it’s a high-fat fish, but that fat contains lots of omega 3 fatty acids (O3FAs). Or does it?

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